Heating the shop

[SandburRanch]

I find your gas vs electric cost link to be on target for my area and that's why I'll be heating the house with electric again this winter.

 

[grsthegreat]

Im heating my house with free wood again this winter

man, im soooo cheap

 

[magicheater]

No mater how you heat I would figure a way to block off the up stairs from the main floor. All of your heat will end up in the upper floor area.

Dan D.

anything like this will help conserve $.

I bought a used mobile home furnace to heat my garage. You can find them that burn oil or gas fairly cheap. I have my T-stat set at 45 just to keep anything from freezing. Raise it to 55-60 when I have work to do in there.

They can be found fairly easily. Even a radiant propane heater off a 20 lb. cylinder would work, just have adequate ventilation.

Im an electrician...end even I picked a propane heater.

In my particular situation, i usually only run the heater for 20-40 minutes to take the chill off of my 30x40 shop. That will raise the temp from below freezing to the 70F range. Then i can work for hours in the shop without the heater running. If i had an electric unit, it would take alot longer to heat up. My gas unit is 125,000 BTU.

Some day ill insulate the rest of my shop....but ive been saying that for 10 years.

Where im at its 6.5 cents per KWH. but in the shops where ive wired electric heaters (im an electrician) all the units the people purchased were far too small for their shops. Most places sell a 5,000 watt heater ( 30 amp @ 240 volt) unless you special order, and this size unit would need to run an awfully long time to heat a 20x30 shop.


using this site Heater Calculator - Heater Store - BTU Calculator - Watts / BTU Conversion - Determine Your Heater Size

using your size bldg, average insulation wanting a 40F rise in temp, this site tells me youd need a 18,750 watt heater....for 64,000 btu of heat. Thats like 80 amps...yeiks. I guess a couple of 5,000 watt heaters might work if your not in too big of a hurry to heat it.

My ultimate goal is a wood burning fireplace.......its in the works. I have 20 acres of free wood.

Save the electricity for the welder and the power tools! listen to this guy!

 

[tmshort]

Thanks for all the input guys.

I like the idea of no flames / combustion in the shop ... I do some painting, etc on occasion.

Can anyone recommend a higher wattage electric heater? My Dayton is 5000W (I think); most of the ones I have found that get into the higher wattages are 3 phase.

I am sorta interested in the wood stove idea, but I don't like the idea of leaving it burning while I am not there.

We do have propane on the property already, but it is a buried tank and is 250'+ away from the shop, so I'd likely need a second tank. Not really worth it in my opinion.

 

[tmshort]

Blocking off the upstairs isn't really an option ... most of my woodworking tools are up there, and I spend a fair amount of time up there as there are a lot of windows and better light.

Looking a the previous link, this looks like the highest wattage option for 240V single phase:
Heavy Duty Unit Heater Dimplex EUH10B34CT 34120 / 25590 BTU's Electric

another brand:
Ouellet 10,000 Watt Commercial Fan-Forced Heater, Model# OASU10000T | Electric Heaters | Northern Tool + Equipment

Anyone have experience with either of those, or another to recommend?

 

[Redneck in training]

I just installed Fujitsu mini split heat pump. They are phenomenal. They deliver rated power to low 4F. The utility also gives us low heating rate 4.2 cents/kWh for the unit. The rate also apply to direct electric back up heat.
Google mini split heat pump. It seems to me that Fujitsu or Mitsubishi have the best technology at this time.

Later on I plan on installation of solar heating similar to the building in the link:
DeSoto Solar Passive Heating Panel Installation

 

[SandburRanch]

Two Dayton G73 heaters will heat your shop to working temperatures. If you're satisfied with the G73 operation purchase one more at $279.00.

 

[tlbuser]

Thanks for all the input guys.
We do have propane on the property already, but it is a buried tank and is 250'+ away from the shop, so I'd likely need a second tank. Not really worth it in my opinion.

No, you'd run a line from the tank to building , then a regulator, then wherever you want.

 

[grsthegreat]

No, you'd run a line from the tank to building , then a regulator, then wherever you want.

My shop is nearly 300 feet from my tank. I had the propane co install a line when i installed my power to shop. works great and i share 1 tank. Also, they installed the line for free as long as i dug the trench..